Maybe I’m punchy from being up this late, but I am at this moment watching The Darkness’ video for “A Thing Called Love,” and laughing myself silly. Is this guy for real? He’s wearing a white and silver satin jumpsuit, unzipped to his crotch. Nice torso, but the outfit is a Zeppelin reject, and Robert Plant always looked dead sexy, while this guy looks like a smarmy lounge act. The Plant comparison could continue with the hair; our fellow here has the frizzy curly blonde hair, but his looks like a home perm gone awry, complete with bad red dye job. More Dee Snyder than Mr. Plant. When singing, he opens his mouth really wide to display his snaggled array of horse teeth; not attractive, yet we get lots of tight head shots of him poutily going “ohhh-oooo” into the camera.
Love it when the guitar falls from the ceiling to land in his hands just in time for the solo. Kewl. Now he’s wearing an intricate tiara, and holding a very fake-looking boulder over his head to hurl offscreen. There’s a crab in the background, then demons, then alien tentacles blessedly wrestling the band to the ground to end the video.
What does this have to do with believing in a thing called love? WTF? Is this brilliance and I’m somehow not getting it? I kinda like this song, but the band is a bunch of clowns, it seems. Do they know they look ridiculous and are camping it up for fun? If so, I can laugh along with them, but if they think this is the height of cool, wow. Set me straight if I’m way off here.
I understand one of the first people they thanked at the Brits last week was their “stylist”. Of course it’s a carefully cultivated image, but when wasn’t it; way back when do you think it was a coincidence The Clash all wore black shirts or Plant showed off his body in that 1970s way . . . those guys just had a better grasp of the real rock and roll game (doing all that stuff before the stylists came along . . .) – if anything I respect this guy for his refreshing honesty, rather than what bands usually do which invloves some ‘new and exciting’ musical philosophy . . . err, yeah right, geezer.
So, nothings real, it’s all marketing; after all, image is as important as the music to insecure teens looking for something/someone to identify with – tribal allegiance, wearing the right (‘cool’) uniform, an’ all that . . . I’m sure there are exceptions, just can’t think of any at the moment . . .
I remember the first time I saw that video (back before we got our cable shut off) and thought, “Dude, that guy’s ugly as hell! Takes some balls for a dude like that to prance around in a Robert Plant costume!” But then when I heard the song without the video, I realized it’s not too bad of a rock tune. The rock n’roll cliche overkill of that video (complete with superimposed images of the backgorund singer, a la Bohemian Rhapsody) is too funny, but unfortunately it overshadows the quality of the song.
I hear the band has become quite popular. Maybe the guy will have enough money to fix his teeth now.
The whole “shtick” about the Darkness is that they want to be accepted on two levels: 1) Rockers who play great, '70’s-style hard rock; and 2) Ironic satirists poking fun at the genre. There has been a lot written in the press about how tough this is; Chuck Klosterman - he wrote Fargo Rock City about his love affair with hair metal as a kid, which is really a great book - in Spin magazine talked about how Brits and other Europeans are okay with bands that both rock and are fun, but that Americans only like their rock straight up - no humor or irony allowed.
I think this post is evidence that The Darkness is more of an acquired taste than the U.S. is typically used to.
As for me, I like the rockin’ tunes and dig the humor, but Justin Hawkins’ helium voice gets to me in about 30 seconds…
Its a joke album but a joke album that is also seriousley kick-ass, a bit like Tenacious D. It is just less obviousley a joke than Tenacious D is so it leaves a lot of people confused as to whether it is serious or not. I think its funny watching all the young kids taking it really seriousley because none of them have seen ‘Spinal Tap’ or get the whole ‘cock rock’ scene.
Thanks for clearing things up for those not in the know, WordMan. Yes, it’s tongue in cheek (cripes, how could it not be?) but not in a Weird Al/Adam Sandler ‘ha ha, okay, it’s getting old’ kind of way- it is genuinely great rock 'n roll in a sea of horrid reality TV singers.
The Darkness rocks. They rock. It is extremely difficult for me and everyone I know to not get up and play air guitar, sing falsetto, prance around when we listen to their debut album. I wanted to put of a few of their songs on a mix CD for my friend’s plane ride and ended up putting on the whole damn album- but only gave it to her after she promised not to stand on her seat and start belting out tunes during the in-flight movie.
I think I’ll go listen to Permission to Land right now- I’m really into Love is only a Feeling at the moment.
No way!!! Love it, baby! It’s like Focus lost a lead singer in a time machine and he formed his own glam-rock band in the 21st century. That 0.7853981633974483-radian* thumbs up is the cherry on top.
I did realize the video was funny, but I’m very glad the humor was intentional, otherwise I’d feel really bad for them. It’s satirical, but maybe it hits just a bit too close to home not to be a little uncomfortable. I wonder if Mr. Hawkins realizes that he actually is rather ugly, and the close-ups make people cringe. If that’s the effect he’s going for, then bravo.
I also agree that I will never be able to listen to this song in quite the same way again.
Last night at around 2:30, my husband and I got into a huge argument over the video. I claimed it was the most brilliant music video released in the past decade. He said it was the dumbest thing he’s ever seen.
Then we started shouting “I’m Rick James, bitch” at each other in an effort to win the argument and we never reached a satisfying conclusion…
In the articles I have read, he does seem to realize that he isn’t the most fetching fellow - he talks about his awful teeth and such…so he seems to get it. But, then again, he does have those tattoos of tongues of flame coming up out of his groinal region so they can be seen emerging out from the plunging cut of his cat suits - so clearly he doesn’t have any self-esteem problems, either…
Maybe he doesn’t give a fuck if he is ugly? Maybe he hopes people will like him and his band for the entertainment value and that his audience isn’t so superficial?
Oh, lighten up, will ya? He shouldn’t give a fuck if he’s ugly, but when you have tight close-ups on your face, and you’re on MTV, it’s a consideration, and it’s also quite noticeable. My decision about buying their album is not altered by his face one iota; I think he and his band are hilarious, now that I’ve been reassured that their video was tongue in cheek. Don’t forget, I came of age in the 80’s, when hard rock bands did videos like this in all seriousness.
It looks like they are trying to play both sides of the street while not outwardly appearing to do so. When I heard the song, I thought subtle satire, so that’s the angle I am sticking with.
To me they unintentionally come too close to Spinal Tap to be taken seriously. I imagine they may not have much legs beyond this song- but I have been surprised before. . .
All I am saying is that i’d quite like to see more ‘ugly’ people on the TV, I am sick and tired of seeing the same Barbie/Ken alikes cropping up over and over…
P.S - you saw a video on MTV? Wow! I thought it was the ‘Cribs’ channel…
It is intentional, they are taking the piss! It is (at Justin Hawkins admittance) supposed to be humerous entertainment. Why can’t they be a parody and be taken seriousley? Tenacious D are joking but they still rock don’t they? I’m going to make a huge generalisation here but Americans are not exactley famous for their grasp on irony are they? Maybe its just too subtle for ya’ll?
